The Rick Perry uprising

The Hill ^ | November 22, 2011 | Bernie Quigley

[2ndDivisionVet]

“ … states' rights, states’ rights, states' rights!” — Rick Perry at the Alamo, June 15, 2009

Until you get higher in the hills, Laconia might be considered the vortex of New Hampshire redneck politics, heavy into the Tea Party. The Lakes Region Tea Party is small but might be indicative of how things will go. A straw poll on Nov. 16 gave Newt Gingrich 49 percent while Cain tied with Ron Paul at 15. Romney 12 percent and Rick Perry 0. Similar results in a straw poll at a Republican club in Alabama on Saturday: Newt 45 percent, Cain 13, Paul and Romney both 11 and Perry 3. Interesting because Perry first gave national credence to the Tea Party when he chanted for states’ rights at the Alamo. But with the sudden rise of Newt, the consummate Washington insider, the Tea Party is no longer really about states’ rights and specific issues. It’s about passion.

I'm all about the Rick Perry uprising, as he described it Friday night on Neil Cavuto's show. He is serious about a part-time legislature, term limits for judges, a balanced budget and state sovereignty issues.

His thinking and direction could save America. But it may take longer. For five years before the Texas governor cut loose at the original Tea Party rally at the Alamo 2009 event with Ted Nugent and Judge Andrew Napolitano present, I had been writing about states’ rights in northern New England. We were well-informed by the best lawyers and scholars in North America on these issues. Legal counsel advised that systemic change as great as this takes time and a lot of conversation.

Perry needs more time for this to sink in and he needs a posse; he needs allies. Not senators, not representatives, but likeminded governors and passionate advocates like Sarah Palin. His brilliant and brave manifesto, Fed Up! describes a path to "save America from Washington.” But it is clearly a world that devolves power to states, regions and their governors. And most governors today are not prepared to receive it.

For Perry's form to advance, governors’ power must be enhanced, their confidence and the people’s confidence in them must rise and the political status of states must rise. It is not a project for an aging and predictable “supercommittee,” but for rising young stars like Alaska’s Joe Miller, Tennessee’s Rand Paul and Utah’s Mike Lee and independent heartland governors like Idaho’s “Butch” Otter. Since 1913 and the 17th Amendment, states and their governors have lost status to Washington. This first must change, and possibly only a Constitutional Convention can change it.

I'd suggest a long-term plan and a council of governors or a “supercommittee of governors”; a council of elders, if you will, made up of former or current governors to consider devolution of power to states and regions. How would the country work then? Who would do what?

Thomas Jefferson’s premise is that the only defense against a bloated or malevolent federal government is the states organically related in their regions. In this model Texans are Texans, Alaskans Alaskan and New England may find its Emersonian soul again. Perry was first to go there again. But it can’t happen overnight.

Maybe the change Perry calls for is impossible. Things don’t change. They break. Then they start over again as something else. The colossal and predictable failure of the “supercommittee” is symptomatic of breakage ahead. But when it starts again, this time it might start with Perry.

[03A3]

Dont get me wrong I like Texas, but anything to do with a car is going to cost time and money, time invested in standing in line for your plates and license for a minimum of 3 hours, time and money standing in line for the privilege of receiving your toll tag, and the wait that galls me most is the automobile inspection. I thought most states did away with this scheme back in the 80’s.

So my car doesnt meet emissions...big deal. I didnt design the engine, nor did I manufacture it. You want a scam to make more money, go after the manufacturers...er wait that will just get passed on to me. How about this get rid of the inspection process period.

[World'sGoneInsane]

The emission standards are set at the federal level. Since Perry wants to get rid of the EPA, that is one more reason to vote for him. Each state would then be their own master.

Seriously, our state's DMV process was the worse. Now that it is contracted out to private run companies, it is very efficient. You can re-register, etc., on-line, and when you have to go to renew your license or get new tags the service is outstanding. What could take up to two hours is now maybe 10 minutes.

We still have inspections, but it is not every year. The only thing that they now check is emissions. Honestly, I have no problem with that. Unfortunately, many people are not considerate of others. LOL...they don't care if they kill the person behind them sitting at a red light.